President Truman established the Federal Civilian Defense Administration in 1951to prepare U.S. citizens for the possibility of an atomic attack. The program was based on a similar project developed during WWII. The very weapon that had ended the war became the greatest fear of the American public once the technology fell into the hands of its communist enemies.

This documentary explores the Civilian Defense Program through the eyes of those who experienced it. The beginning of the Cold War was fought in American classrooms. The 1958 National Defense Education Act provided funds for the expansion of science and math programs that would help the United States win the space race as well as the arms race. Richard Lebenson noted in his interview this educational push while he was in school and indicated that the launch of Sputnik was the catalyst. Continue Reading »

Some Fundamentalist Thoughts on the End is a documentary produced, filmed and edited by Jahneille Edwards. It is the result of spending five months of intense discussion, research and learning about the makings of apocalyptic theory and the application of such theory in everyday life. After being immersed in the language of theory I wanted to test in a sense the waters and pry into the thought processes of those that adhered to certain theories. Having entered the course with an uncertain definition of the “apocalypse” I have now gained a clearer understanding eschatological thought in its traditional, modern and post-modern sense and was eager to embark upon my own research. Continue Reading »

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I wake up and drag myself out of bed as I have for the past six months. It is mid-December and my frozen apartment in Hamilton Heights is pitch black as it always is at two in the morning or at night or what ever. I shuffle across of the tiny part of my bedroom floor that isn’t covered in dirty clothes and trash to make my way to the kitchen. I, then, place a kettle filled with water onto the stove with the all the energy I could gather.
I saw the blue fire of the burning gas and wished I could muster up the courage to throw myself into it. I want the flame to grow and engulf the house and me and everything I knew. And then there were no more thoughts. Those are all the thoughts I ever have. This is how it has been for six months, or for as long as I can remember. Continue Reading »

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An expert on mood disorders from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the co-author of one of the most read textbooks in the field, Manic Depressive Illness, Kay Redfield Jamison, once detailed her experiences with and expertise in bipolar affective disorder (subtype I), and suicide in an interview with Charlie Rose. When asked about her suicide attempt, Jamison told Rose that in an episode of severe clinical depression, “the first thing that hits you is hopelessness.”
After having read many books about the personal experiences of those with psychiatric illnesses and suicidal tendencies, and having known many who have gone through spectrum of mood disorders, I wondered what a world without any hope—without even the hope of suicide for a dignified death—would look like for its inhabitants. A complete loss of hope in the absence of any real cause seemed like a very interesting Doomsday scenario. Continue Reading »

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